hello health champions today I want to go over a keto grocery list for
beginners coming right up hey I'm dr. Ekberg I'm a holistic doctor and a
former Olympic decathlete and if you want to truly master health by
understanding how the body really works make sure you subscribe and hit that
notification bell so you don't miss anything whether you're just starting
out on a low-carb keto diet or whether you've done it for quite some time
there's always things to learn so I try to compile some basics that you can
benefit from when you're thinking about what to stock your cabinets with so
first of all let's talk about what you don't want to do you don't want to go
and spend hundreds of dollars on things you have no idea how to use so even if
you have the best of intentions don't go buy a bunch of vegetables you've never
used you don't know how to cook them because they're probably just gonna sit
there and they're gonna spoil instead you start off you you empty your pantry
you throw out the stuff that you know you're not gonna eat anymore the sugar
and the starches and the processed food and then you buy some staples that
you're familiar with you buy some things that are not gonna perish right away you
have used them in the past and those are gonna be your foundation so let's talk
about those I think it's a great idea to start with frozen things because even
though that may not be the bulk or everything that you're gonna eat it's
just great to have it at home you can use it sooner or later and it's not
gonna go bad so depending on the size of your freezer you can buy various amounts
and fill it up with good stuff so meat you can buy ground beef you can buy
fajita meat whatever your you usually get and the better the quality you can
find and afford the better so I always recommend grass-fed organic but if you
can't find it or can't afford it start we're all right that's the most
important thing don't complicate it keep it simple then chicken chicken wings
chicken thighs I just love those things lamb is a great meat and fish also keeps
very well in the freezer and fish in a lot of places you can buy the freshest
fish frozen because they they fish it they harvest it and they freeze it
already on the boat they pull it straight out of the ocean and they
freeze it so some of the freshest fish you can buy is actually already frozen
plus it's convenient and some of my favorites are salmon and then you want
to avoid some of the larger predatory fish salmon is one of the large fish
that is actually pretty clean is low in mercury but other than that you
primarily want to stick with small flatfish so the the white meat fish I
like flounder and Cod and sole and so forth because they generally if they're
small then they haven't lived long enough to get contaminated with a lot of
mercury and another one of my staples is sardines and I know a lot of you are
just gonna wrinkle your nose and make an ugly face and frown at me but give it a
try a lot of people love tuna but canned tuna but they just can't imagine eating
these tiny little fish well I challenge you to buy a good sardine in oil I found
some great ones at Costco their sardines in olive oil and you probably wouldn't
be able to tell the difference between that sardine and tuna canned tuna right
so buy some canned sardines and give it a try they're cheap and they're a
fantastic concentrated nutrient source for very very little money it's a great
snack and some other things you can buy frozen are vegetables right the broccoli
and cauliflower you and find in a lot of places they do very
well and like at Costco now you can even buy the frozen cauliflower rice the rice
cauliflower and it's already mixed up with bell pepper and and some onion and
some good stuff it's flavorful you're just throwing it throw it in the pan and
and you've got a dish there already some of the things I like to buy fresh our
spinach and bell pepper and in the first few days I use it fresh for a couple of
days and then before it goes bad I freeze the rest so the bell pepper I
chop it up in little cubes I put it in a little Ziploc bags and then I have a
little portion pack ready to take out if I make an omelet and same thing with
spinach you put it in a ziplock bags you can squeeze all the air out so they
don't take so much space and then that's perfect just to throw in the pan when
you're making an omelet the things I like to keep around the vegetables I
like to keep in the house fresh or cabbage avocado tomato and lettuce
because those are things that I use all the time so pick a few things that you
know you're gonna use a lot and those are the ones you keep fresh cabbage is
great because it keeps a couple of months even if you don't get right to it
it's gonna stay good for a while plus it's pretty inexpensive avocados if
you've never had them I've never used them regularly they can be a little
tricky because like how do you know if the ripe and how long do they last and
so forth well I buy them when they're green and hard and then you put them on
the counter and then you watch them closely you put them somewhere you walk
by all the time and every time as you see them start turning from green to a
brownish black you very gently squeeze them and with some practice you get
really good and the moment that you can start sensing a little bit of softness
in that avocado now you put it in the fridge and it keeps for a couple of
weeks and then before I'm done with those avocados in the fridge
I'll buy some new ones and as soon as they start to soften I put them in and I
have in a drawer I put in the newer ones in the back so I kind of rotate and keep
the stock moving forward so I buy a dozen avocados at a time we go through
them there's several a day in my household that we eat absolutely
fabulous food it's keto friendly it is a
nutrient-dense plant that just works as a wonderful complement to all the other
stuff tomato lettuce and then cucumber also or some staples I use for salads
all the time so whatever you use a lot of and you know you're gonna use fresh
you get some of that and on the keto diet you're gonna eat very very low carb
you're gonna eat moderate protein and then you're gonna fill up on fat as
needed so you need some quality fats you want to be able to cook your vegetables
in high quality fat so the ones I always keep our butter extra virgin olive oil
coconut oil coconut cream and MCT oil and you do want to spend just a little
bit extra to get the organic whenever it comes to fat because most poison most
metals chemicals hormones their fat soluble so when you buy an oil you're
buying a concentrated version of something and if it had toxins to start
with then it's gonna have concentrated toxins so as much as possible you want
to buy the organic to minimize that toxic exposure some people avoid dairy
some people are sensitive to Dairy and then you want to cut that out but if you
feel that you tolerate dairy well then you go for the full fat and the
fermented those are the best ones so the ones that I keep around our sour cream
and cheese and I try to get the raw cheese whenever I can but at least get a
good quality cheese so it hasn't been processed and
mixed in with pasteurized milk and things like that some of the pre-made
slices of cheese for example you want to avoid because they have milk
they have pasteurized low-fat milk mixed in with them so then you're not really
getting the cheese you're getting pasteurized milk with it those are the
ones that people tend to be the most sensitive to and next I think that you
can go by the deli counter and get some ham and some sausage and some pepperoni
but it depends on where you live and what you have access to because this is
a maybe category it could be perfectly fine if you find
some organic if you find some good sources if they haven't added a bunch of
sugar and preservative and nitrates been been there fine and these are great for
snacks right there perfect you you're in-between meals you just want a little
something then grab a few slices of ham or a sausage and these also keep in the
freezer deli to me is totally fine as long as you're selective about what you
get and fortunately there's more and more good alternatives coming out I mean
there's tons more stuff than even just two three years ago then you want to
load up on some nuts and seeds all right if you have room in the freezer you keep
them in the freezer if you don't then they keep fine on the counter but on the
counter they last for weeks or months in the freezer the last four years so if
you have room you can put them in the freezer and these are things that are
not going to spoil and as you start exploring different keto options at some
point you're probably going to want to bake something you might want to make
some oatmeal substitutes you want to make some some cookies or some bread or
some crackers and these things are gonna be your staples for those they're also
great for snacks and if you use them for snacks you want to try to get the nuts
that are tasty when they're raw so macadamia nuts
walnuts almonds for example are great and then for the seeds
I like the Chia the flax the hemp and the pumpkin seeds and then I buy almond
flour because that's great for baking and filling and mixing if you're making
smoothies then these nuts also come nuts and seeds
also come in handy and there's a great staple unless you just happen to be
sensitive to them or eggs and any old egg will work but as you get into a
healthier lifestyle you want to look for pasture-raised eggs not pasteurized but
pasture-raised that means the chicken had a normal chicken life and they ran
around they had grass and blue skies and they could eat a variety of things in
their environment that's pasture raised and as you get used to that you will
appreciate the quality those eggs the yolk is large and orange and beautiful
and tasty you also want to keep some condiments around I like to have hot
sauce we have a recipe for hot sauce and I like to keep mustard and mayonnaise
the only thing about the Mayo is as you get into the keto lifestyle and you
start appreciating the quality of fat you realize that the fats I listed here
are inflammation and neutral whereas most Mayo on the market is made within
pro-inflammatory soybean oil and canola oil so you want to look for some Mayo
that is made with something like avocado oil or you make it yourself you can
stock up on a good variety of coffee and tea ok coffee speaks for itself the tea
can be black green white or any herb tea just watch on the herb teas the vast
majority of them are great but there are some that have added sugar or some
chemicals or some weird stuff in them so go with reputable brands and and figure
try to figure out what's what's in there so you're getting good things and like I
mentioned you're probably gonna want to get into
baking something at some point I've discovered some great keto breads I'm
doing some cookies for treats and for these you want the same nuts that we
listed above but you could also have nut butters like peanut butter cashew butter
almond butter go easy on the cashew because it's kind of high in carbs and
you can have seeds same ones we listed the Chia flax hemp and pumpkin but also
shredded coconut in a lot of health food stores and farmers markets you can find
unsweetened finely shredded coconut and that's the one you're looking for not
the regular shredded coconut because that's like 50% added sugar
I keep almond flour around I grind my own pecan flour and walnut flour for for
baking and also you want to keep cocoa powder because you can make hot
chocolate from coconut cream you can make smoothies with it you can make some
cookies and treats with it some Quito bombs and baker's chocolate really dark
chocolates you can keep around some eating chocolate as well some as long as
it's in the 80% range 80% cocoa or above the dark chocolate then it's gonna have
very very little sugar in it so you can enjoy an occasional treat but if you go
down to like 50 percent cocoa in the chocolate now it's gonna have too much
sugar so you're gonna eat a lot of sugar but it's also gonna stimulate cravings
so you're not gonna be able to stop as easily but once it's 80% or above a
single piece is often very satisfying you want to try to do away with just
about every sweetener that you've ever used such as sugar or honey or agave or
maple syrup etc but there are some sweeteners that I think can be useful
and acceptable you want to give up soda for sure except something called Z BIA
and that's a soda with a variety of flavors I don't get paid for
this and they sweeten it only with stevia and they have nothing artificial
no artificial colors even the cola and the orange soda is perfectly clear like
water so it's a good product don't overdo it but it's a nice treat once in
a while you can get some stevia and monk fruit but you want to get it in the
concentrated powder form or you want to get it in a concentrated liquid form try
to avoid the ones that have a lot of fillers and that have a lot of sugar or
multo dextran and things like that in them it's not terrible to get those
little packets but if you use them on a regular basis even that little half gram
coffee or tea and they can't drink it just straight so then they add a little
bit of stevia and monk fruit and I don't personally like stevia in coffee I just
don't like that flavor however I love stevia in smoothies and on yogurt and
thinks there are kind of tart or sour the stevia works wonders so basically
everything on this list is gonna have less than 4 or 5 grams of carbs per
hundred net carbs per hundred grams of food so less than 4 or 5 percent of this
food is going to be carbs and that means it's very keto friendly as long as you
stick to these things it's going to be very difficult to exceed your
familiar with in the beginning and then you slowly branch out and you develop
new skills and you find and develop new recipes a new repertoire for things
then things get too complicated and you want to be nice to yourself and not
available so that you don't fall for the temptation it whether you're home or
whether you're out somewhere you want to have something that if you get a craving
or desire that you can grab something real quick and some of the best things
then would be for me I know this sounds strange but sardines are great you could
have something like avocado those are things you can eat like the right the
way they are but also ham sausage pepperoni cheese those are great snacks
nuts a great snacks keep something handy keep something in your purse in your
when I recommend overtime is that you learn to cook large batches of things so
when you make a stew or when you bake something or whatever you make then you
make a big batch that does well with freezing and then you can cook on
weekends and you can cook enough of something for a month or two and then
you start kind of increasing your repertoire you fill up your freezer with
ready-made things that you can just pull out and defrost and make life much
easier if you enjoyed this video make sure to check out that one thank you so